Family puts the rev into business revolution

‘MOVIN’ on the queen’s highway, lookin’ like a streak of lightnin” sang Chris Spedding back in 1975 in Motorbikin’ – his only song to reach the charts.

Well, that wasn’t quite me this week – 18 months after starting the first stage of my education transferring from four wheels to two and picking up my Compulsory Basic Training (CBT) certificate.

I have finally bitten the bullet and decided to take lessons to sit the two exam modules that would let me ride something other than a 125cc machine.

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Cameron Bike Training in Stirling was my destination for an appointment with a 600cc Suzuki Bandit and my instructor Calum Cameron who, 10 years ago at the age of 19, was the youngest motorcycle instructor in the UK.

This family business run by him and his mother Rosie is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

Rosie started the school in 1992 as a part-time enterprise in Galashiels, before coming to Stirling and running it as a full-time school.

“It was a hobby,” she said. “But it’s the best job in the world, doing something you enjoy and getting paid for it.

“I reckon we put around 400 people through their test every year, but the total over the past quarter century could be nine or 10 thousand.

“Even when it’s cold, wet and windy the job satisfaction is tremendous, there’s nothing like it.”

Calum has been riding since his teens and regarded training as more of a hobby a decade ago.

“I actually trained as a hotel manager and was running a restaurant in Edinburgh – 21212 in Royal Terrace – and we’d won a Michelin star and I was looking for something else to do,” he said.

“I was looking for a new challenge, but I would’ve had to go to London or Dubai or somewhere to reach above that level.

“I was doing this training on my days off as a form of relaxation and my mum and I sat down together had a talk and that’s really how I started full-time.

“The company’s my mum’s baby but I’m adopting it now.

“I remember when I was very small, she had a wee caravan with two bikes locked up outside it, just where Sainsbury’s is now.

“She had one student at a time and the business really has grown arms and legs since then.

“At the moment we have three full-time instructors, two part-timers, one trainee who’s due to start in December and one mechanic, so seven of us in total.”

Calum says the entire motorbiking industry is growing – and a large part of that is down to the last recession.

“Every year we say to ourselves at the end of the season ‘that was a helluva lot busier than last year’ and there are more and more people looking to get into bikes.

“We had a big surge of people when the recession happened – people looking to get a bike because it was a cheaper form of transport and that helped us dramatically.”

After not riding two-wheelers for a considerable time, I was a bit apprehensive when I climbed aboard the Bandit, a much bigger and more powerful beast that the one on which I sat my earlier CBT.

But I needn’t have worried. It really was just like riding a bike – once learned never forgotten.

We went through all the mundane – but vital – stuff, walking-speed manoeuvres and slow slaloms around traffic cones, and before I knew where we were my time was up.

That’s two lessons I’ve had so far and both days we’ve had decent weather. However, this being Scotland that can’t last.

I’ve set myself a target of doing Scotland’s answer to Route 66 – the North Coast 500 – but that may have to wait until next year.

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